Captain Marvel, Marvel’s first film to focus solely on a female lead, released earlier this year to outstanding numbers, raking in over $1.1 billion worldwide. After just over 3 months since its release, Captain Marvel is now making its way to its home release and Screen Rant got the chance to sit down with producers Victoria Alonso and Jonathan Schwartz. Throughout the discussion we cover Easter Eggs, Goose’s gender, Hulkling, and the potential for a Power Pack series on Disney+.
First of all, congratulations on this film. I love it. I love Captain Marvel, I love the lore, and the one thing I love about this film is the strong relationship between Carol and Maria. It’s just a beautiful friendship. But we all know that Monica becomes something in the future: Spectrum. When finding a young Monica Rambeau, what were you looking for?
Victoria Alonso: Well, she had to play this part particularly well for what it was, not for whatever the future was. If you start casting for 10, 20 years from now, it’s never gonna work. So it was really about who was the right kid for Maria. And she was the perfect kid.
Jonathan Schwartz: Yeah. I mean, you know, we wanted an actor who could feel natural and not super rehearsed, and I think we wanted someone who felt like she meshed with Brie, with Lashana, really well. And Akira was amazing like that. she just felt like she was their friend, she was their daughter, like she was right there.
Victoria Alonso: And a little bit of an old soul.
Burning question from a fan perspective that I wanted to ask after seeing this movie. Talos has a son, and he interacts with Monica towards the end of the movie. It’s my fan theory. Can you confirm or deny: is that Hulkling, the Skrull?
Victoria Alonso: I can’t confirm nor deny your theory, but why do you think it’s a son?
That’s a great – yeah. For some reason, I just thought it was his son. It could be a –
Victoria Alonso: Isn’t it interesting how we always assume that it’s a man? I’m just asking. Is Goose a man or a woman?
Goose?
Victoria Alonso: Yeah, the cat.
I thought Goose was a female.
Victoria Alonso: You’re right. But most people think otherwise.
Really? Interesting. Can you [Johnathan] confirm or deny?
Jonathan Schwartz: Can’t confirm or deny. I think the whole idea of Skrull gender is really interesting, and we’re thinking into it more.
Victoria Alonso: I like that.
This is a different side of the space version of the MCU than we’ve see. Because we’ve seen it in Guardians and in Ragnarok. How do you want to separate the storytelling from this side of space to separate it from other science fiction properties that we may have seen in the past? Any science fiction properties.
Victoria Alonso: I don’t know that it’s separate. I think that to think that science fiction or galaxy living or planet hopping is one way, I think is just a little too small of a view. The way that we see it is that in every place that we go, any realm that you go to in our world, there’s a way of being that is unique on its own. But it doesn’t necessarily have to be incredibly different, because there’s things that unite these characters [in] how they live and what is it that they’re seeking. So I’m not sure that there was a conscious choice to make it 100% different from anything else, it just had to be its own right thing. And if it was different enough, that was one thing. And if it wasn’t different, then you could call out the differences. But for us, there was more, “Is it what it needs to be for this story?”
We’re obviously getting the home release of Captain Marvel. And for eagle-eyed fans out there that are spotting small Easter Eggs in the MCU, what are some of the ones – maybe not tell everybody – that you caught, that you were like, “Oh, that’s really cool. I hope people catch onto that?”
Jonathan Schwartz: Easter Eggs in Captain Marvel, that now under multiple viewings people can sort of go back and latch onto? I don’t like to spoil things. I want people to have fun.
Victoria Alonso: That’s hard. I can tell you there’s some, so that should encourage you to at least view it a dozen times. And then I think it’s really about you going scene by scene, and going and seeing, “Ooh, do I see what I think I see? Or do I see what I want to see?”
Just switching things for a second: Disney+ is coming out. I can’t wait for some of these series that were announced. I’m so excited. But when I was a kid in the dentist’s office, what got me into comics was Power Pack. Dentist’s office, I would read it. Is there a chance I could get my dream come true of the Power Pack Disney+ series?
Victoria Alonso: Here’s the thing. Your dreams will come true. I don’t know about Power Pack, but Disney+ has a long life. I love the Power Pack, and it would be great to see it. But is that it? That’s all [that’s] at the dentist’s office? That one thing?
Power Pack is what drew me into comics. These kids having these adventures. I just loved it.
Victoria Alonso: I love Power Pack, too.
Johnathan Schwartz: Totally. I love the idea of Power Pack.
